“Fresh deep dish pizza topped with cheese, sauce, mushrooms, anchovies, slices of artichoke hearts and olives. Finally a pizza place in Israel than isn’t stingy with their anchovies…” Yonatan Sternberg takes a trip to Haifa for some traditional Italian family style dining.

Situated in the Romema neighborhood of Haifa, Popolo, an Italian family owned restaurant has been around for over thirty years. It seems that everyone I stopped to ask for directions immediately knew where I was heading and some even recommended their favorite dishes.

Popolo is located behind the Paz gas station (look out for the big red, green and white sign), and even has an adjacent playground where children can run around and play before or after a family outing.

The menu at Popolo offers a wide variety of Italian style dishes including: homemade pasta, fish and seafood, deep dish pizza, a special children’s menu, meat, soup, salads and more. Due to its spaciousness, wide variety of dishes, affordable prices and homey atmosphere Popolo is an ideal restaurant for a family get-together.

After browsing through the menu (check out the impressive and original pizza topping selection), we decided to start the meal with an individual pizza, garlic bread and salad. It took me a while to chose our pizza toppings, but once I noticed the “Caprichoza Pizza”, I knew I had to have it. Fresh deep dish pizza topped with cheese, sauce, mushrooms, anchovies, slices of artichoke hearts and olives. Finally a pizza place in Israel than isn’t stingy with their anchovies. Personally I usually prefer thin crusted pizza; however the combination of the salty anchovies and artichoke hearts was tasty – the pizza and garlic bread were gone in a flash.

Following warm recommendations, by both the local Haifan’s and the friendly waiter we decided to order the meat lasagna. Layers of lasagna noodles topped with a rich meat and cream sauce. I have to admit that this is one of the most generous Lasagna portions I’ve seen recently. Looking around us, I noticed that almost every table in the house had at least one meat lasagna on their table. The waiter also mentioned that there are cases of people who have moved away from the city return to order the dish.

The restaurant also prepares their own “stuffed pasta”, including ravioli and cannelloni. Again the portions were very generous; the cheese tortellini (which actually turned out to be round ravioli) was cooked al dente and topped with a rich mushroom cream sauce. If you don’t like your pasta “swimming” in sauce, be sure to order the sauce on the side or ask the waiter to have the chef go easy on the sauce.

Popolo also offers an affordable business lunch menu and a free delivery service. For their complete take out menu please check out their web site.